From academics, to physical and mental well-being, our brand new Exam Survival Guide is full of resources from the Library and campus partners to support you.
At exam time and always, do your best, and forget the rest.
Course readings for the spring term are being processed at Brock University Library.
To ensure your students have access to their spring course materials, we encourage you to submit reading lists as soon as possible. Ideally by mid-April.
An instructor self-serve option is also available, providing flexibility to instructors who wish to do this work themselves. All self-submissions will get a final check for copyright compliance and will then be active for students.
A note about print reserve readings:
While we encourage instructors to continue using online alternatives, print items are accepted.
It is important for instructors to consider the element of risk in choosing to use print reserves for your course: If strict public health measures were to resume, these materials might be inaccessible for your students. Electronic readings have the benefit of being available to students no matter the changing public health measures.
Several alternatives to print resources are available including the creation of course-specific online packs. The Reserves team is ready to work with you to develop these for your students. More information about non-print options is available. Liaison Librarians are also available to help you identify alternate resources.
The E-Textbook Challenge.
Providing digital access to some textbooks may be hindered by the textbook publishers because most textbooks are not available to libraries in any format other than print. Most of the major textbook publishers — Pearson, Cengage, Houghton, McGraw Hill, Oxford University Press Canada Textbooks, Elsevier Imprints, Thieme — do not sell e-textbooks to libraries. This means that for courses that have adopted textbooks from these publishers, students who do not purchase the textbook have no alternative access to the textbook contents.
Questions? reserve@brocku.ca
Systematic reviews, scoping reviews and other forms of evidence synthesis are increasingly popular in many academic disciplines because they generate powerful data used to guide policies, programming, patient care and other practices.
Join Brock University Librarians Ian Gordon, Chelsea Humphries, and Elizabeth Yates for a new three-part workshop series which will help participants gain the knowledge and skills needed to conduct a systematic or scoping review from start to finish. These in-person workshops are suitable for Brock faculty, librarians, graduate students and staff. Hands-on activities, and some pre-work/follow-up work – e.g. readings, watching short video modules – will be involved. Each workshop will build on skills and information from previous sessions; attending all three is ideal, but not required. Participants must bring their own laptop/device.
Registration is via ExperienceBU at the links above. These workshops are part of the Building Better Research series in collaboration with the Office of Research Services.
Research, Research methods, Workshops
Categories: Main
Brock University Library invites applications for the full-time position of Acquisitions Coordinator.
The Acquisitions Coordinator plays a critical role in the procurement process for Brock University Library by overseeing the ordering, receiving, and invoicing of library materials for the James A. Gibson Library, the Map, Data & GIS Library and the Archives & Special Collections.
Learn more about this opportunity and how to apply. Applications will be accepted until Friday, April 22 at 12:01 am.
Employment opportunity
Categories: Main
Over the fall and winter terms, Student Library Assistants in the James A. Gibson Library have curated displays of the library’s collections on topics with which they are passionate.
This month, Catherine (Katie) Vandongen, a second year co-op student in Psychology, is exhibiting titles related to brain injury awareness.. Katie notes: “As a student in the Psychology program at Brock, it seemed fitting to create a display for a topic that is close to my heart, while educating my fellow peers. Traumatic brain injuries, such as concussions, are very common among young adults, especially student athletes. It is important to know the signs and symptoms of traumatic brain injuries to prevent irrecoverable damage from occurring. I hope that library users will take a moment to view my display and educate themselves on the warning signs of traumatic brain injury.”
Please stop by, throughout the month of March to view this exhibit located in the James A. Gibson Library and at the Thistle entrance to the Matheson Learning Commons. Many thanks to Katie.
display, Students
Categories: Learning Commons, Main
Over the past several years, the Brock Library has been engaged in a process to renew the Library’s organizational structures. The ultimate goal of the restructuring is to better align the organizational structure with strategic goals of the University and the Library.
Our “go-live” date for the restructuring is coming soon: May, 2022! The new structure is informed by extensive consultation internally in the Library and with the wider Brock community. Over the coming weeks, we will be communicating more about the changes through a variety of channels.
In the meantime, we want to draw your attention to a document available on the Library’s website that provides details and rationale for the planned changes. A version of this document was previously shared with stakeholders, Senate committees, and Senate proper in May, 2021.
If you have questions about this document or the proposed changes, we’d be happy to hear from you.
Questions or comments can be sent to Mark Robertson, University Librarian.
Brock Library
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Open Education (OE) Week is from March 7-11 this year.
This annual event highlights the impact that Open Education initiatives continue to have across subject fields and communities, and an opportunity for sharing, and learning about the latest innovations and achievements in Open Education worldwide.
In recognition of Open Education Week, March 7 to 11, the Brock University community will have access to events and webinars exploring open educational resources (OER) including:
Educational Technologies for Open Pedagogies 1
Cal Murgu (Brock University)
Tim Ribaric (Brock University)
Tim Ribaric and Cal Murgu, Librarians at Brock University, will discuss ed-tech solutions for open pedagogy. Featuring examples from their own practice, Tim and Cal will first discuss how Github Pages, Hugo, a static site generator, and H5P, can be used to create interactive and modular learning without worrying about institutional infrastructure, financing, and red tape. Secondly, Tim and Cal will discuss how Google Collab, an interactive coding environment that runs in your browser, can be used to create accessible learning experiences for novice students or expert programmers.
Registration is free for this event which will be presented in collaboration with the University of Alberta’s Open Education Week Symposium on Wednesday, March 9 at 12:30 pm (10:30 MST)
Celebrated annually across the globe, Open Education Week raises awareness and showcases the impact of open education on teaching and learning worldwide.
Collaboration, OER, Open Education, Open Educational Resources
Categories: Main
Brock University Library invites applications for the full-time probationary position of Systems Administrator, Library.
The Systems Administrator helps design, implement, and support the Library’s technical solutions in support of the University’s teaching, learning, and research missions. The incumbent provides technical support, and installs and administers tools to support and enhance the Library’s computing systems. The Systems Administrator supports web-based, real-time systems relating to library data, student data, communications, research, and other administrative areas, and is responsible for the Library’s digital infrastructure.
Learn more about this opportunity and how to apply. Applications will be accepted until Monday, March 21 at 12:01 am.
Employment opportunity
Categories: Main
The Esri Canada GIS Scholarship Award program provides software, books, training, funding and other benefits to undergraduate and graduate students at universities across Canada who can demonstrate competent use of Esri’s geospatial technologies.
Brock University has been privileged to take part in the Scholarship Award program for the last 9 years. This year, the 2022 Esri Scholarship Competition will be held virtually with a deadline for applicants set for April 1st. The winner will receive a cash prize of $1,000 plus additional books, software, and learning opportunities.
The successful applicant will be required to complete a poster and an ArcGIS StoryMap by June 1, 2022 outlining how they used ESRI’s suite of products to enhance or conduct their research. Projects may include personal research, academic projects or even course assignments.
Brock’s 2021 recipient was Jessica Linzel who “Reimagines Historical Topics with GIS”.
Read the stories of previous recipients and information for student applicants.
Questions? sjanzen@brocku.ca
ArcGIS Pro, MDGL, Students
Categories: Main, MDGL
In celebration of Freedom to Read Week (February 20-26), we present a selective timeline of censorship activities throughout history.
For more recent challenges to the printed word, check out 7 days | 7 Challenged Books on our Instagram and Twitter feeds from February 20-26.
8 C.E.
The Roman poet Ovid was banished from Rome for writing Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love). He died in exile in Greece eight years later. All of Ovid’s works were burned by Savonarola in Florence in 1497, and an English translation of Ars Amatoria was banned by U.S. Customs in 1928. 8th Floor of the Library – PA 6519 A8 H6
35
The Roman emperor Caligula opposed the reading of The Odyssey by Homer, written more than 300 years before. He thought the epic poem was dangerous because it expressed Greek ideas of freedom. 8th Floor of the Library – PA 4025 A5 M43 2004
1525
Six thousand copies of William Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament were printed in Cologne, Germany, and smuggled into England were then burned by the English church. Church authorities were determined that the Bible would be available only in Latin. 10th Floor of the Library – BS 140 1989
1597
The original version of Shakespeare’s Richard III contained a scene in which the king was deposed from his throne. Queen Elizabeth I was so angry that she ordered the scene removed from all copies of the play. 8th Floor of the Library – PR 2821 A2 W5 1968
1614
Sir Walter Raleigh’s book The History of the World was banned by King James I of England for “being too saucy in censuring princes.” 10th Floor of the Library – D 57 R183 1972
1624
Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible was burnt in Germany by order of the Pope.
10th Floor of the Library – BS 239 1967
1859
Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published, outlining the theory of evolution. The book was banned from the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, where Darwin had been a student. In 1925, Tennessee banned the teaching of the theory of evolution in schools; the law remained in until 1967. On the Origin of Species was banned in Yugoslavia in 1935 and in Greece in 1937. 5th Floor of the Library – QH 365 A1 1987 v.15
1885
A year after the publication of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, the library of Concord, Massachusetts decided to exclude the book from its collection. The committee making the decision said the book was “rough, coarse and inelegant, dealing with a series of experiences not elevating, the whole book being suited to the slums that to intelligent, respectable people.” By 1907, it was said that Twain’s novel had been thrown out of some library somewhere every year, mostly because its hero was said to present a bad example for impressionable young readers.
6th Floor of the Library – PS 1306 A1 1996
1929-1962
Novels by Ernest Hemingway were banned in various parts of the world such as Italy, Ireland, and Germany (where they were burned by the Nazis). In California in 1960, The Sun Also Rises was banned from schools in San Jose and all of Hemingway’s works were removed from Riverside school libraries. 6th Floor of the Library – PS 3515 E37 S9 1954
1932
In a letter to an American publisher, James Joyce said that “some very kind person” bought the entire first edition of Dubliners and had it burnt. 6th Floor of the Library – PR 6019 O9 D8 1969
1980s
During its examination of school learning materials, the London County Council in England banned the use of Beatrix Potter’s children’s classics The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny from all London schools. The reason: the stories portrayed only “middle-class rabbits.” I.R.C. (WH 222-Book Stacks) – PZ 7 P85 Tap 1979
Freedom to Read Week “is organized by the Book and Periodical Council’s Freedom of Expression Committee, a group committed to promoting intellectual freedom in Canada. Since 1978, the committee has worked with educators, librarians, publishers, writers, booksellers, advocacy groups and the community at large to provide information that addresses censorship and book and magazine challenges in Canada.” (Book and Periodical Council, 2022).
Our Collections
Categories: Main